Thread: Tractor run..but for how much longer?

Different times.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Different times.

I would venture to say that there is at least one generation, maybe two, that have absolutely no idea of what is going on here with developing those farms! It is amazing that the footage was taken, never mind preserved!

I think that the old fellow may be a bit confused concerning the hay baler around 3.20 of the video. It may just be the sound track, but what I can make of it he is saying that the bales were wire tied.

That baler is a twine tied baler, and I beleive it is a Massey Harris 701.(not Massey Ferguson, or New Holland) It was a bit unique in that the bale was formed on edge and the knotters are mounted on the side of the chamber. The "needles" can be seen on the side nearest the camera. It was one of the first models of with a twine tied system, and self pickup baler. It also has its own engine. The early models in the UK used a single cyclinder diesel Armstrong Siddeley engine, the later models a kerosene Ferguson tractor engine. As a kid I was fasinated with the packer arm, which we called a "magpie" for an obvious reason.

Wire tied balers were stationary balers. The cut hay had to be gathered up and taken to where the baler was parked. It took at least 3 men to operate them, one to feed in the crop and two to handle the wire tie. There was a wooden board about the shape of the chamber that had to be inserted from one side into the chamber at the rear at just the right time and place that determined the length of the bale. The wire (2) had to be passed in a guide in the board from one side to the other by one of the operators, and the bloke on the other side had to join the ends together.

All this while the bale was being pushed along the chamber. And it also had a "magpie" to push the hay down into the chamber.
I can recall that at about 4 years of age my father telling me to keep away from the "magpie", as it may see me and pick me up and stuff me into the baler! He used to tell me the same thing about the old single cyclinder oil burning tractor when he was trying to start the bloody thing!

I noticed that the old fellow had a bloody great hearing aid in one ear. All of us that worked around tractors and machinery of that era now have a good excuse for being half deaf!

There are some good photos here. That one has the Fergy engine:

Massey Harris 701 - www.yellowswirl.info

The crawler tractors deserve a comment of their own, as does the double header tractor.

edit: add video

Cut the poor old coot some slack, OF, he was 99 not out.

I post this as I cannot find any single photos. A similar tractor was on the farm that my father was allocated as a soldier settler around 1949 in WA.
It was entirely unsuitable for a dairy farm and my father refused to accept it, and its cost of around 500 pounds, so the War Service authority took it back.

It was a HSCS, Hofherr Schrantz Clayton Shuttleworth, machine, built in Hungary as far as I know. A single cyclinder diesel that was designed to run on heavy fuel oil. There were several different models, and although I still have the serial number, I have never been able to track down any more about it. I believe it was a model 55, as opposed to a model 35. The smaller model engine was around 7 litres, and the 55 model around 10 litres displacement. It needed to be heated, as many of the similar engines of the time were, to start it. In the video you can see a portable LPG cyclinder that I guess they used to heat up the "hot bulb". I do remember my father using a blowlamp; and a strong stream of swear words trying to start it!

There is an example in a tractor museum near Perth, and one day I will go there with the serial number and see if I can find out anymore about it.
I also still have the invoice for 5 gallons of heavy fuel oil!

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Cut the poor old coot some slack, OF, he was 99 not out.

Actually, in the credits at the end it lists all of the brothers names, and when they passed away.

Tractor run in Spudfans bog area. I think that may be him at 30.06?

What are those big 4WD tractors used for Spud? MF seem to be the most popular, but a good assortment of different makes and sizes, plus some cars.

Not me in the video, but regarding the big tractors. Some contractors use them but there are some that do nowhere near the work they were designed for. A man, since deceased, showed me a rebuilt cabless small Massey he had got rebuilt. He said that his wee tractor did more work than a lot of the big tractors running around now. The little tractor as many similar others was worked all hours in all weathers. It ploughed and towed stumps. It seems people spend on big tractors as a tax thing but they are sore on fuel.

Originally Posted by spudfan

It seems people spend on big tractors as a tax thing but they are sore on fuel.

And then they go on youtube bitching that dear john won't let them fix 'em.